


lost and found

by arcanamagnus



Category: Transformers: Victory
Genre: Child abuse/neglect, First Meetings, Gen, Implied/Referenced Bullying, Kid Fic, Self-Medication, internalized ableism, ok now cws
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-01
Updated: 2020-11-01
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:02:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,763
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27328501
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arcanamagnus/pseuds/arcanamagnus
Summary: Attempting to find solitude in some secluded rooms in the aircraft base, young Hellbat runs into a pair of identical strange jets he’d never seen before and makes his first real friends.Written for Rare TF Pair Week Day 1: Beginning.
Relationships: Hellbat & Leozack, Hellbat & Lyzack, Leozack & Lyzack
Kudos: 1
Collections: Rare TF Pair Week 2020





	lost and found

**Author's Note:**

> Have you ever wondered about the origins of Leozack, Hellbat and Lyzack as I write them? For Rare TF Pair Week, I am exploring the early days of these characters and their relationship to each other, in special Leozack and Hellbat. While all of the works I managed to finish (except the one for Day 7, an AU) take place when they were still just friends (teasing from Guyhawk notwithstanding), these can be read as leading up to their romantic relationship in my other works featuring these characters.
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

Being alone was not a luxury one was afforded when they were a fighter jet in the Guard Decepticon Hatchery, Hellbat knew that well, but that didn't mean he had to like it. He should count himself lucky, others had said, because he was actually assigned guardians because of his power rather than left to be cared for at the adult jets' whims, but that meant nothing to him. He wished he could be  _ alone _ because there must be something wrong with him when both his parents and his peers looked upon him with disdain like he wasn't just  _ three _ and yes a bit glitched, but still with real feelings that could be hurt.

It was supposed to be "playtime" now for the juveniles in the barracks, but Hellbat didn't have any friends to play with, and he'd often get taunted by other mechs for sitting alone in a corner fiddling with the deck of cards he'd been given so he'd stop scratching himself, so today he decided to try something different. He was too old for "playtime" anyway.

He'd ferreted the codes for every door on this side of the complex by now from observing the adults very closely, and it was easy to just disappear from the common area to the offices where sometimes his guardians had to take him to have his outlier ability and its evolution evaluated. He hated those days — just another opportunity for mechs who didn't understand to poke and prod at him and for his parents to complain about his poor performance and misdeeds like he wasn't also in the room —, but he knew the medical offices were cool and well climatised, and that most of the examination and equipment rooms were very often not in use, so they were a perfect place to hide away until dinnertime.

He sneaked through the dark corridor with hushed footsteps until he reached a room with its door half open, a sliver of light poking through. This was certainly a bad idea, likely to have him caught, but Hellbat was forged with an insatiable curiosity and had to check it out.

Closer now, he could hear indistinct voices talking, and sounds of vials clanking. It was one of the medication rooms, and was supposed to be restricted access, but it was clear from the scratch marks on its entry pad that it was forced open. The beginning stirrings of genuine fear started welling up in Hellbat's spark, but that ridiculous drive to  _ know _ had him go closer and closer until he could peek inside with his left optics.

The room was a mess, data drive cases tossed around the whole place instead of in the shelves and drawers, and there was a chair pushed next to the tallest shelf where a completely unfamiliar white and teal fighter jet-ish looking mech ferreted through the highest tiers and handed the cases to another completely identical mech standing at the bottom, who read them out and promptly threw them aside after a short hushed discussion with their clone.

This didn't bide well. At all. These could be intruders purposely sabotaging their medical supplies and  _ this _ could be an opportunity for Hellbat to prove himself worthy by busting them and—

He leaned a little too far on the door and it made a small creaking noise, but it was enough to have four pairs of red — red?? — optics staring back at him, frozen in place.

It was a question of who moved first, and Hellbat's incessant twitching guaranteed that he set off the mech — a  _ catmech _ , now that he could see their face — on the floor to dart to where he stood, claws extended and teeth bared, ready to tear him to pieces.

He wished he could have said he fought, but the panic was so great and the damn override code for retracting his mask and getting his own teeth in play so complicated that all he managed to do was whimper and shield himself with his arms.

The hit never came, he realised. The two mechs were talking again, this time so  _ close _ to him and maybe if he stopped panicking so much he could—

"Are you okay?"

One of the identical mechs, the one with the lower voice, had grabbed his face — a bit rough, but not hurting — and was now talking to him, looking almost as confused as he was.

"They saw us! They're going to—"

"Ly, this is a literal child. They don't even have a brand yet."

That much brought him back.

"I am not a child!" He shot back, jerking from the catmech's hands. And from further observation, "The two of you don't have brands either. Who  _ are _ you?"

They looked down at their own chests, where they each had a crudely painted number — 1 for the one that had been holding him, 2 for "Ly" — in place of the Deceptibrand all adults in this place carried, and frowned back at him.

"He doesn't—" 1 looked back at 2, as if lost for words, then turned to him again, biting their lip, "How old are you?"

"Three vorns and ten cycles," he answered, trying not to sound too childish, "Why?"

"He wouldn't know, then," 2 commented, then added, "Tell him."

"Tell me what?"

"You've never seen us because we weren't meant to be like you. We're freighter defects, not much older than you, but I don’t imagine they would’ve told other jetlings about us."

_ Defects. _ That was an ugly word, one that he'd had flung at him and said over his head far too many times. It made him flinch, which he knew they noticed as 1 stopped his hand from digging into his plating and laced it with theirs.

"What's your name?"

"Hellbat."

"I'm A—," they —  _ he _ — paused, "I'm Leozack. That is my sister Lyzack. We're not going to hurt you."

"Unless you make this difficult for us." Lyzack added, almost sorrowful.

"Unless you make this difficult for us," Leozack repeated. "Our bodies don't work right, and something here has got to be able to fix that."

"Are you sure?"

"No."

That wasn't reassuring, but Hellbat understood the desperation, the need for  _ something _ to make you not wrong and the hopelessness when nothing worked.

"What do you need?" He asked, hesitant, but also so very willing to help.

They looked at each other again for a second, and Lyzack was about to answer when the cats froze again and a strong hand grabbed him by the back of his neck.

“So  _ here’s _ where you’ve been, you little punk.” He instantly recognised Magnasnarl’s voice as she manhandled him to face her. “What did you do here? And with the  _ Airzacks,  _ even.”

A strong, deep growl came in stereo from the mechs now behind him, and Hellbat now realised that the catmechs were actually larger and bulkier than even Magnasnarl — and there were more of them than there were of her. Was someone finally going to stand up for him to his guardian? That was an alien, but very sparkwarming concept.

"Let him go," Leozack warned. 

"He was lost. We found him." Lyzack completed. “You should keep a better optic on your jetlings if you don’t want them running into us.”

Magnasnarl snarled, pointed fangs showing through, and the thought of her verbally lashing at these new friends (?) was enough for Hellbat to finally snap back into himself and tap into that strange little power that had placed him in this position. In the zeal to keep him from biting as a self-defense mechanism, they’d forgotten his teeth weren’t why he was dangerous in the first place.

The adult jet grew slack and fell backwards as Hellbat’s ultrasonics worked their magic on her brain module. It was certain to make her and the other two have at him even harder when he did come back home, but he didn’t want these mechs who stood up for him to get slagged by whoever Magnasnarl would have reported them to.

With a shaky voice, Hellbat begged Leozack and Lyzack to run away, but they remained planted in place, staring at the older catbot’s inert body. 

Lyzack looked up at him, brow knit.

“You’re an outlier.”

“Yes, been one since I was born, thank you,” Hellbat snapped, “I can hold this for about two breems and I  _ need  _ you guys to be gone by them. I can take responsibility for this, but you two… you don’t deserve to… I don’t even know!”

“You don’t deserve to get punished in our place either, just,” Leozack came over to him again, obviously still uncertain, but with enough conviction in his voice, “I think we can make this work for both of us.”

“How?”

“I think…”

* * *

Hellbat was hiding in a supply adjacent to the jet barracks, just enough for Magnasnarl to wake up on her mat and discuss her “dream” with Flybeast and Skyrazor, and for them to realise they probably should search for him since he missed refuelling. 

He thought back fondly on the idle talk he got to share with the cats as they helped him haul his unconscious guardian back home, stretching the limits of his power by following Lyzack’s intelligent suggestion of continuously turning it off and on again after hearing his explanation of the buffer time it took to wake up once he stopped emitting the sound. Leozack and Lyzack didn’t have any specific carers, just being under custody of all six space freighters stationed in the Hatchery, and they usually refuelled alone in their own room, so no one would miss them. Hellbat talked about how crowded the barracks were and how he wished he could have his own room, and got back a joke (?) about how he could hang out in their quarters anytime from Leozack (Lyzack didn’t seem as enthusiastic about this, but she did seem more reserved than him). It made him happy when Leozack suggested they meet again, actually passing him the codes for the freighter area so they’d be easier to find.

He had friends. For the first time in his life, he had friends! Friends who were also shunned for circumstances beyond their control and didn’t find his outlier ability freaky and were willing to step up for him, and Hellbat was absolutely ecstatic about it. Friends! His mind could hardly wrap around the concept, and he found himself wiggling his wings and his entire torso happily in his little hideout, smiling hard behind his mask.

He’d be found soon enough, but he’d take his joy while he still could.

**Author's Note:**

> For some additional context, three vorns, Hellbat's age, is equivalent to early teens in terms of development. Leozack and Lyzack are a little under a vorn older, being in the equivalent of their mid teens in this fic.


End file.
